Stonewall: No Offence

Stonewall, the lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality charity, releases new research by YouGov today that shows offensive comments are frequently made about lesbian, gay, bi and trans people, but that very few people step in to challenge these slurs. The research comes ahead of Anti-Bullying Week.

In the past year, one in five (19 per cent) admitted to making offensive remarks about LGBT people. Almost a third (30 per cent) have heard offensive comments, or language like ‘poof’ or ‘dyke’, in the past month and half (49 per cent) have heard this sort of abuse in the past year.

Nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of those who witnessed this abuse didn’t intervene, almost a third (31 per cent) said they did intervene but just three per cent said they offered support or assistance to the person targeted. The research also shows that women are twice as likely to confront someone they hear making offensive comments (27 per cent of women compared to 13 per cent of men).

Stonewall is asking people to sign up to its No Bystander pledge, and commit to calling out abuse when they hear it and to be brave, be heard and be kind. So far more than 16,500 people have signed up...

Stonewall. 

Not sure what we can deduce from this.

Does it include crap gags?

Calling someone a silly old queen?

Even if they are silly and an old queen (and you're their boyfriend)?

Going 'Whoops-a-daisy! 'in a 'comedy' camp voice?

Saying something's 'gay'?

Saying someone's gay?

Surprised it isn't higher tbh.

But hey! Why question a survey from an LGBT advocacy group who benefit from talking up a problem?

That'd be like questioning one of those endless 'surveys' from LGBT marketing groups saying we're all loaded.

Remember: 100% of surveys are 100% reliable!

PS Ben Goldacre points out some holes in a Stonewall survey about coming out.

Tweet Of The Day: Clicktivism

Via @bengoldacre

These internet petitions really do make me despair sometimes.
It's a sign not of political engagement, but of a highly depoliticised culture.
Maybe I should be touched by the naivety, but do people really think that, say, the mayor of St Petersburg is going to stop doing something homophobic because some fags in the wicked West have clicked on a button to say they think he's being homophobic?
Sadly, I've a feeling the only e-petition that anyone's ever taken much notice of has been the Coalition 4 Marriage one.

PS Yup, there's not much in the papers worth commenting on today. "Laters."

Bad Science: Bad Stonewall Survey

In his Bad Science column in The Guardian the great Ben Goldacre pulls apart Stonewall's hole-filled survey that they claimed shows lesbians and gay men are coming out over 20 years earlier.
"I thought I'd already covered all the ways that a survey could get things wrong, but this one brought something new."
Fagburn believes the age people are coming out at has dropped dramatically - but thought this survey was just plain daft.
Here's why.